Deaf people can see better?

Deaf people can see better?

If a sensory organ fails, the brain apparently uses unused areas in the brain to sharpen functioning sensory organs. On the basis of a study, scientists from Canada were able to prove that cats can see better if they were born deaf.

Unused brain areas are used for other sensory organs.
It is no longer a secret that deaf people can often see better. In an experimental set-up, scientists from Canada investigated how the brain uses unused brain areas when a sensory organ has failed. Researchers at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, studied cats born without hearing. Compared to other conspecifics the deaf cats could see much better. For example, the animals were able to perceive objects at the edge of their field of vision significantly better during the study, and were also more sensitive to movements. The researchers were able to prove that the unused brain areas of the hearing center take over the visual tasks.

Pigeons seem to be able to better recognize objects at the top of the field of view
The researchers described their findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Areas of the auditory cortex that normally register environmental noise have now been used to perceive the objects at the edge of the field of view. For this reason, the cats could not hear a approaching car when changing the street side, but see all the better. "The brain is very efficient and does not waste unused space," said study leader Stephen Lomber. "It compensates for the lost sense with useful improvements." Now the researchers assume that the functionality of the area remains the same, but the sense modality changes.

It is very likely that these findings can also be applied to humans. Whether the brain behaves similarly, for example, if one suddenly becomes deaf due to an accident, the scientists want to clarify in another study. The next focus is on how the brain reacts to hearing aids. The results could be used to improve, for example, the functionality of hearing aids. The entire article was published in the science journal "Nature Neuroscience". (sb, 17.10.2010)

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